Millennial farmers: Few in numbers but big in impact on ag world

The president of a research firm devoted to agriculture says while the number of millennial farmers in Nebraska and nationwide is small, their impact on farming operations is surprisingly large.

Jan Johnson, of Millennium Research, says producers between the ages of 18 and 34 aren’t always recognized for the important decisions they’re making.

“Even though they’re young and might actually still have a job off the farm, they’re making a lot of the decisions regarding seed, feed, fertilizer, crop protection, technology and all those sort of day-to-day or seasonal decisions that farmers make,” Johnson says.

With the majority of U.S. farmers over the age of 55, Johnson predicts fewer farmers will control more land.

“From the work that we do, which tends to concentrate on commercial-sized operations, we find that farmers under 44 years old tend to control farming operations of almost twice the size of older farmers,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s research also finds “technology adoption” high on the list of priorities for millennial farmers, and most are extremely well-educated.